Winter Color Garden

Winter color does exist: Ornamental Kale ‘Peacock’ among the violas.

Many feel that there is a dead zone in the color calendar between Columbus Day and Christmas; as far as commercial landscape accounts are concerned, there is no color to offer. As growers who make money selling color to the green goods industry, we can tell you this point of view is completely wrong. We are growing some pretty interesting stuff in our Winter Trial Gardens, and we think these plants can help landscapers build another season of billable color services to their clients.

To us, a plant qualifies as Great Winter Color if it offers strong colors, bold textures or both. The plant should look better and better as the season turns colder and colder—it also needs to take hard hits of frost and bounce back looking great. For bonus points, we also consider the shape of the plant. We like garden drama; therefore, we select plants that capture interest.

So, what have we found? Let’s take a tour of this year’s Winter Color Garden.

'FlameThrower™ Chipotle'

We have an interesting new coleus to spice up the landscape this spring: ‘FlameThrower™ Chipotle’. We like the bold new colors of The FlameThrower™ series, particularly the contrast of dark maroon and chartreuse we see here. These narrow, pointed leaves are striking.

‘Chipotle’ can be used in sun or shade—it performs well in both. We find that the chartreuse practically glows in the shade so this is a good choice for mass planting to brighten darker spots in the landscape. It’s also a nice alternative to traditional impatiens for adding shade color while avoiding downy mildew.

This variety is great for containers, too—it has a nice compact habit and combines well with other plants. We like to mix a few funky coleus selections of different shapes and sizes and see what happens.

‘FlameThrower™ Chipotle’ is available in the 4.5-inch pot.

Plant en masse for effect.

As we do every year, we’ll be taking a break between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays—our offices will be closed. From time to time during the week we’ll stop by to take care of orders and other necessary tasks but those hours will be on the casual side. If you need to speak with us, please leave a phone message because we’ll be sure to listen to it.

Go ahead and take advantage of the quiet time over the holidays to do your planning for the upcoming season—our Pre-Order screens on the web site will be open. For your convenience, orders may be placed via email or fax as well. We’ll also be sending out our usual acknowledgements and responses, only at a more relaxed holiday pace.